Letter: The 'yes, but' crowd on freedom of speech

(FILES) A photo taken on March, 11, 2010 shows Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks walking in the streets of Stockholm. Vilks, known for his drawing of the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog in 2007 was attending a debate on Islam and free speech as gunmen opened fire on February 16, 2015 in Copenhagen, according to media reports.FRANCOIS CAMPREDON / AFP/Getty Images

In the wake of the double shootings that occurred in Copenhagen this past weekend, I’m bracing myself for the tidal wave of apologists that seem to accompany any event linked to cartoons. I have a name for these people: the “yes, but” crowd.

After the usual admission that freedom of speech should be protected, the “yes, but” inevitably ensues shortly after, drawing my ire and resentment to what should have been a strong clean-cut statement. The predictable moral degradation that follows usually entails a thinly-veiled accusation toward the cartoonists for having audaciously insulted a certain religion by printing images of a certain prophet, or as I like to call it, exercising freedom of speech and of the press. They will have you believe it’s unwanted provocation, unnecessary, and without it we would have avoided the violence all together. How terribly defeatist it is to suggest we should filter our opinions for fear of retribution, and suggesting that there would be no violence if we did is extremely naive and foolish.

To gag our most vocal critics would be to dismantle the very essence that makes our society free.

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